{"id":116720,"date":"2026-08-03T11:45:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T06:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=116720"},"modified":"2026-08-03T11:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T06:15:14","slug":"lepidoptera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/lepidoptera\/","title":{"rendered":"Lepidoptera"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Lepidoptera Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientists of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) have come out with a detailed Catalogue of Lepidoptera (Butterflies &amp; Moths) of India recently.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Lepidoptera<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is an <\/span><b>insect order <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">comprising about 180,000 species of <\/span><b>butterflies and moths.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This <\/span><b>order <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of insects is <\/span><b>second in size only to Coleoptera, the beetles<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>name \u2018\u2019<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lepidoptera\u2019\u2019 is derived from the Greek, <\/span><b>meaning \u201cscaly winged,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d and refers to the characteristic covering of<\/span><b> microscopic dustlike scales on the wings.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the <\/span><b>exception of a few moths, all adult lepidopterans<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have t<\/span><b>wo pairs of wings.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because of their <\/span><b>day-flying habits and bright colors,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the <\/span><b>butterflies <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">are more familiar than the<\/span><b> chiefly night-flying and dull-colored moths, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">but the <\/span><b>latter are far more varied and abundant.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Distribution:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lepidopterans live on<\/span><b> every continent except Antarctica.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though they are far more <\/span><b>numerous and diversified in the tropics<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, some species survive at the limits of polar vegetation.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>life cycle<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of lepidopterans consists of<\/span><b> four stages: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa, and adult.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are <\/span><b>mostly herbivorous (folivorous) as caterpillars <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>nectarivorous as adults.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They play an important role in the natural ecosystem as <\/span><b>pollinators <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and serve as <\/span><b>primary consumers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the food chain.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conversely, their <\/span><b>larvae <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(caterpillars) are considered very <\/span><b>problematic to vegetation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in agriculture, as they <\/span><b>consume <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">large quantities of<\/span><b> plant matter (mostly foliage) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to sustain growth.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Silkworm (Bombyx mori), a moth, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is the <\/span><b>source of commercial silk.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Catalogue of Lepidoptera (Butterflies &amp; Moths) of India<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India is home to 1<\/span><b>3,703 species <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of lepidoptera, which is about <\/span><b>8.25% of the total lepidoptera<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> found across the globe.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of the 13,703 species of lepidoptera, <\/span><b>1,417 are butterflies,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the <\/span><b>remaining 12,286 are moths.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Among the 13,703 species of lepidoptera, the scientists have identified and catalogued <\/span><b>2,205 species of Geometroidea, nocturnal pollinators taking over the \u201cnight shift\u201d when daytime butterflies rest.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These 2,205 species account for <\/span><b>8.8% of the world\u2019s <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">known species in this superfamily.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News<\/b><strong>:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/energy-and-environment\/india-is-home-to-13703-species-of-lepidoptera-about-825-of-all-known-species-of-butterflies-and-moths\/article71298229.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lepidoptera is an insect order comprising about 180,000 species of butterflies and moths. Read more about Lepidoptera, Habitat, Distribution, Characteristics, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":116775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9201],"class_list":["post-116720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-lepidoptera","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116720"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116769,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116720\/revisions\/116769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}